The First of Four in Kekirawa: SFP 6 – Mahadiulwewa School

We landed in Kekirawa, an area that seems developed for Anuradhapura. However, isolated villages with only twenty or thirty children are scattered around the Ritigala mountain.

These children need to be brought out of those villages. Otherwise, they will spend their whole lives there—birth, marriage, raising children, family, worship, and death—all contained within the same place.

There’s a saying, “Did you at least visit a school even in the rain?” But for these villages, there must be a school to remain open in the rain. If not, the children will quickly stop their school journeys.

Thanks to the dedication of the principals and teachers in these villages, these schools remain open even with just a few number of students.

We had planned to visit four schools: Badivawa, Kaluabe, Mahadiulwewa, and Kirimatiyava. All of them have a maximum of twenty or thirty students. Last year, with the help of a few people, I gave books, bags, and pencils to these schools.

However, the project has only started at Mahadiulwewa School at this moment. This school has 44 children and a principal who is capable of making a huge commitment.

The projects at Kirimatiyava and Badivawa will start next week. I will share more details then.

So who is the one dedicated to this? A group of old girls from Visakha College, who are friends of Rasika. Kanchi is the coordinator. A few of them have gotten together and divided the budget. If there is a group of at least four for four weeks, the weekly contribution from each person becomes a small, manageable amount.

Money is deposited into the school’s account every Saturday for the following week. The principal and the primary school mothers arrange the five weekdays and cook meals for the children. Kanchi and the others monitor from the pictures that are sent to them. If they are satisfied, they contribute for the next week.

A lot of support is needed to monitor this. Asitha, the Medical Officer of Health for Kekirawa, has been working closely with me since 2016. When I asked him to find a school in the Ritigala area of Kekirawa, he brought in PHI Chaminada. Chaminda is a hard worker. He goes to the schools and prepares the mothers’ minds to start the program.

Here are some pictures from the “Pirunu Kusak – Pirunu Hisak” program that started on this Tuesday. It couldn’t start on Monday because of a serious problem: Kanchi couldn’t find the bank branch to deposit the money. However, now it is going good.

They are a good group of girls. They plan to support this for the entire year.

Thanks Rasika Kumarasinghe and the team

By Dr. Kiloshini Hendawitharana.